I'm aware this game had a
canceled TAS a while back (now accepted to the vault), but I feel it deserves some revisiting.
I worked on the real-time runs for this game (w/deaths and deathless) and I used this TAS as the basis for my strategy in some rooms. However, the TAS itself is pretty unoptimized in places, particularly boss fights. I've also completed several of the rooms faster in real-time than the TAS, so I know there can be some routing optimizations as well.
The main issue is this: fire spawn triggers are extremely complex and picky. I haven't been able to investigate the exact mechanism that determines what/when flames can spawn, but it's likely a combination of player position, number of currently-spawned flames, and a bit of RNG. Even finding the mechanism may not help since manipulation would be difficult while maintaining good speed.
I have a longer list of notes and addresses saved to a file at home, so I'll edit those in when I get back. The main things to know are the damages and HPs. The game runs at 30 fps, and damage is calculated per frame. You can stack damage (ie hitting with spray + bomb + axe) and this works in your favor for several bosses. Also, water bomb management is critical to a successful run since it drastically reduces the amount of time spent fighting bosses (1 WB is equivalent to about 6.5 seconds of constant spray over only 1 second).
As far as time savings, better boss strategies exist for at least bosses 1, 3, 4, and 6. My real-time runs lost time relative to the TAS due to not having perfect movement/triggers and some slight route changes, but my average time saved on bosses was 5-7 seconds per boss.
I plan to work on this after I dig into it a bit more, but any help is appreciated.
EDIT: Small data dump below. These are verbatim from my notes, so probably some unimportant stuff in there.
HP:
Enemy values are set up on the fly, and aren't "dead" until it goes to -1 HP.
Small flames - 7
Trail Flames lvl1 - 0
Blue Big Robo - 40
Crosswork flames - ?
Big Flames - 40
Air Flames - 0
Ground Wheels - ?
Line Flame - ?
Blue Small Robo - ?
Bosses
Boss 1 - 350
Boss 2 - 500
Boss 3.1 - 200
Boss 3.2 - 200
Boss 3.3 - 200
Boss 3.4 - 200
Boss 4 - 600
Boss 5 - 700
Boss 6 - 999
Enemy Attack Power:
Based on 48 HP starting health; rescues restore 30 HP
k=knockdown
h=heavy knockdown
Small flames - 4
Trail Flames lvl1 - 8
Blue Big Robo - 8k
Flame spouts - 8k
Crosswork flames - 8
Big Flames - 8h
Air Flames - 4
Falling pipes - 8k
Ground Wheels - 8
Exploding Barrels - 8k
Line Flame - 4
Blue Small Robo - 4
Tracker flames (from big) - 4
Robo arm - 8k
Low crosswork - 8
Slow Seekers - 8
Green Big Robo - 8h
Falling lights - 8k
Trail flames lvl2 - 8
Air Robo - 4
Air Robo explode - 8h
Heat Wave - 8h
Door/Window Explosion - 16h
Green Small Robo - 4
Zigzag - 8
Zip flame - 8
Obstacle - 8
Sploder - 4 normal; 8h explosion
Boss 1 - ?
Boss 2 - ?
Boss 3 - 16h
Boss 4 - ?
Boss 5 - 16
Boss 6 - 16
--Low crosswork is 4
Damages:
Damages can be stacked. So stream + bomb is effective
stream - 1/2
Spray - 1/2
Danny - 4/15
Bomb - 5/2x33 (165)
Super water - 1 and 2 on alternating attack frames; 1.5x damage
Addresses:
7E15C3 - Pete actual HP
7E15C7 - Pete actual HP for E/Expert mode
7E1930 - Pete displayed HP
7E0C7B - Boss 1 HP
7E0BFB - Boss 2 HP
7E0BFB - Boss 3 HP
7E0BFB - Boss 4 HP
7E0C1B - Boss 5 HP
7E0BFB - Boss 6 HP
7E1E6C - Final Points